Before the opening of their second store in Toronto, Muji set up an exhibition to showcase their fourth international design competition. They accepted 4824 entries from 49 countries, displaying their first exhibition in China, before moving it through Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and now Canada.

For such a big competition there was a surprisingly small amount of press about it being in Toronto, and I only discovered it by chance on their Facebook page. You probably wouldn’t have heard about it at all unless you frequent Square One and saw it as you walked past.

The Muji store still under wraps next door.

Gold, silver, and bronze award winners all get the same transparent cube.

First place was a tie this year between the Storage Book and the Pebble Chalk. The judges found it so hard to pick one they gave the gold award to both entries.

This tote transforms into a shoulder bag when required.

Stick of light – who are they kidding they probably just wanted to make a light saber.

Really loved the idea behind this umbrella. The handle and the tip of the umbrella are cut so they can lean perfectly against a wall. Neat.

A square bottle cap so we never have to struggle again. No more wrapping rubber bands around ones especially hard to twist.

There was a small poster exhibition set up next to the design entries.

I love Japanese type in compositions. The verticality isn’t something you can achieve easily in English.

The small white circle is a nice touch. Muji in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Perhaps the circle is meant to represent all-year-round. Or maybe I’m just looking too deeply into it.

All kinds of people passed through as I made my way around to marvel at all the pieces. Being an industrial design student, I probably took ten times as long to make my way though the exhibit than other people. It’s too bad that the exhibit is no longer around for you to visit, but the Muji store in Missisauga is open now to explore instead.